


On Naming Antebellum Territories and States

by magicandlight



Series: The States [6]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Another Naming Story!, Gen, pre-Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 03:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: He was expecting Northwest Territories to be a little older.Okay, a lot older.





	On Naming Antebellum Territories and States

**_1787: Cordelia Rebecca_**  
He was expecting Northwest Territories to be a little older.

Okay, a  _lot_  older.

He hadn't expected to follow that internal compass that pointed towards his states and territories only to find an Indian tribe, a woman rocking an infant.

She looks up at him, and hands the baby over silently.

The baby has green eyes- not emerald like Sam's, and not sea-green like so many of his children's, but peridot. Her pale hair is set into a charming mess of cowlicks and curls.

She isn't newborn. That's pretty much all America can tell.

The tribe lets him take her without a fight.   
\--------  
Alfred bounces the baby on his knee as he stares at the blackboard covered in name suggestions made by other states.

Evelyn, Marietta, Dahlia, Phoebe, Claire, Julia.

None of them seemed to fit. He shook his head at the girls.

Scarlett frowned. "Perhaps another city name?"

"Marietta is the capital, and Claire came from the Governor's last name." Brooke countered.

Elizabeth turned another page of her novel (or whatever she was reading). "What about a literary name?"

Constance tilted her head. "You liked the Odyssey."

Sam shot her a look both bemused and irritated. "The only normal girl name is Penelope, and does she look like a  _Penelope_?"

"Clarissa? Like Clarissa Harlowe?"

Alfred shook his head again.

Elizabeth gestured to the shelf of books beside her. "A Shakespeare name?"

The girls brighten.

"Beatrice?"

"Helena?"

"Viola?"

Alfred looked at the baby, who had started to giggle. "Cordelia." He told the girls decisively.

"Cordelia what?"

"Cordelia Rebecca Jones."

Connie frowned and leaned towards her sister. "Where'd  _Rebecca_  come from?"

 ** _1790: Timothy Anthony_**  
Northwest and Southwest.

Congress really needed to stop naming his children after cardinal directions.

Southwest looked around the same age as Corey did when he found her.

He brings the baby home and Corey immediately takes an interest in him.

Unfortunately, she expresses this interest by poking his face.

The baby starts crying, and Corey's face crumples.

In the space of five minutes, he has two crying children in his arms.  
\--------  
After calming both down, Alfred places little Corey in her cradle, and when she protests and Sam crosses her arms in the doorway and says  _she's fussy because she hasn't ate,_ he goes and makes a bottle.

There had been some scrambling when Corey first came to live with them- mostly because she was a  _baby_  baby, and young enough that she would have still been nursed if she were human.

Then Scarlett came home with the set of glass bottles and Danny came back with a cow from god knows where, and they solved one of the problems.

He taps at the windowsill, where one of the house fairies is lounging, and holds out the bottle. "Can you..."

The fairy lays its tiny palms on the bottle, and Alfred can feel the bottle warming. "Thank you." He tells the creature.

The baby blinks at the bottle and Alfred sighs, realizing this means two bottles he has to make, two baths to give, to children to put to sleep.

He gives the bottle to Cordelia, who immediately falls back onto her bottom and grabs the bottle away from him.

If he's learned anything, it's that she'll be out in twenty minutes. The baby clings to Alfred's shirt, and he smiles.

The baby needs a name.   
\---------  
In the end, Alfred names him after two revolutionaries. "Hello, Timothy Anthony Jones."

The baby smiles at him.

 ** _1792: Abigail Catherine_**  
DC seems to like Elizabeth better, but Alfred doesn't mind.

He names her Abigail, after Abby Adams, and Catherine, after Catherine of Aragon.

The gleam in Elizabeth's eyes when he tells her that another child shares the connection of being named after English royalty is worth any snark Matthew gives him.

 ** _1792: Kendall Tucker_**  
Okay, sticking the kid with a moniker like Kendall Tucker isn't his best creative moment.

The Virginias seem a little horrified by his name.

Wes has no right to judge with a name like Wesley Arthur.

Tim and Kendall immediately become friends.

 ** _1798: Andrew Casey_**  
Mississippi Territory's hazel eyes blink up innocently at Alfred.

Alfred swallows and picks up the child. Little older than when he found the other two territories, quite a bit older than Abby- who looked a little older than a newborn, younger than the other territories are now.

Andrew is a strong name, even though the older ones immediately shorten it to Drew. Casey means brave, and Alfred thinks he'll need a little bravery.

 ** _1800: Riley Joseph_**  
"Riley Joseph." Alfred declares.

"Where did  _Riley_  come from?" Will whispers to Del.

 ** _1804: Evangeline Renée_**  
Louisiana is older. Maybe five or six, which is a relief.

He names her Evangeline Renée on the way home.

 ** _1805: Michael Jack_**    
Alfred doesn't actually name Michael.

Matthew does, six months before handing him over when the Organic Act is signed.

 ** _1809: Cassidy Juliet_**    
The story behind Cassidy's name is actually a little strange.

Cassidy came from Kaskaskia. Or at least the Kas- part. He could have named her Cassandra, but it didn't seem to fight the girl quite right.

Juliet was mostly Alfred hearing someone butcher  _Jolliet_  until it became  _Juliet_.

Matthew crossed his arms. "You named your child after a mispronunciation?"

Alfred shrugged.

 ** _1811: Flora Esmeralda-Amalia_**  
Alfred wasn't fond of Florida's name.

It was very... common.

Sure, Elizabeth, Daniel, and William were all common, but María was just... lacking the charm the others had.

It was a perfectly lovely name- it was actually Del's middle name.

It just didn't fit Florida.   
\-------  
When he asked if she wanted a new name, Florida grins and nods.  
\-------  
Flora, he decides for the first name.

Then he hesitated, and asked a question he hadn't asked since the originals were children. Of course, their answers had been along the lines of  _hell no_  and  _I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a spoon_ , but...

"Would you want Spain's last name? Do you want to hyphenate?"

Flora's eyes darken slightly. " _No._ "  
\-------  
He turns Flora's previous name over in his head.

_María Esmeralda Amalia de Gracía Iglesias._

She wouldn't take Spain's name, but that didn't mean her heritage had to be completely disregarded.

María was out of the question, and so was de Gracía Iglesias.

He'd have to work with Esmeralda Amalia, then.  
\-------  
"Hey, what about Flora Esmeralda-Amalia Jones?"

Flora looks up at him. "Jones?"

"Yes."

 ** _1812: Caleb Charles_**    
The day Louisiana becomes a state is cheerful, until Evangeline sways on her feet.

Alfred, at first, assumes it's the champagne she'd been allowed a glass of. But the way her brow wrinkles as Scarlett grabs her elbow to steady her-

"Part of it's gone." She whispers. "I'm not big anymore."   
\----------  
When they rename it Missouri Territory, he realizes.

Part of Evangeline's land had been stripped from her. There's a new territory.   
\----------  
He's younger than the other territories now, but older than the other territories had been when he first got them. Corey is perhaps eight now, but she'd been barely half a year when he got her. Missouri is perhaps two.  
\----------  
He names him Caleb, after a painter, and Charles, after the Saint.

 ** _1817: Joshua Albert_**  
Alfred cradles the child to his chest as the train rocks back and forth. It's a soothing gesture, and soon the baby is asleep. "If you had been a girl, I'd have named you Dixie. Dixie Camellia." He brushes back blonde hair. "But you aren't a girl. So, hello, Joshua Albert Jones."

 ** _1819: Caden Philip_**  
Evangeline runs down the driveway so she can walk with him. "That's Arkansas?" She asks breathlessly, nodding to the boy in his arms. He was little, approximately three.

"He's adorable!" She squished his cheeks together. "Squishy baby." She squished his cheeks together again.

Arkansas broke into a (confused) dimpled smile. Or tried to at least. It's hard to smile when someone is squishing your face.

"Ev, he doesn't know who you are."

"Evangeline, you're going to scare him off."

"Evangeline, quit harassing your brother!"  
\----------  
" _Salut_ , Caden." Alfred whispers.

 ** _1836: Oliver Spencer_**  
Alfred lets Corey and Riley name the new baby.

 _Oliver_ , Corey decides.

 _Spencer_ , Riley contributes.

They argue over which will come first for forty-two minutes- until Michael steps in.

 _Oliver Spencer_ , he tells them.

 ** _1838: Tyler Martin_**  
Angelica Van Buren holds the newest child- Iowa. "He's beautiful." The woman says, letting the baby grab at her necklace. "What's his name?"

"Tyler. I haven't decided on a middle name yet."  
\----------  
_Martin_ , he decides, after the president who created him. If he had been a girl, he'd have been named Angelica, after the first lady.

 ** _1845: Austin Zachary_**  
Texas joins the Union after nearly ten years of independence. Independence has aged him until he looks almost as old as the originals- fifteen to their sixteen.

Lora comes to his statehood ceremony. She brings a girl with her, and Austin mouths a name and practically throws himself at her. The girl laughs, and her eyes gleam with happiness- one blue as the sky, one earthy brown.

"Who's that?" America asks, even though he has a feeling he already knows.

Mexico smiles. "That is Carmen. She's his  _hermana_. She's the one who came up with his name, you know."

 ** _1848: Calypso Electra_**  
"Valentina," Lora says in that accent of hers. "California. No, I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her in years."

Alfred blinks twice and sneers at his sister-nation. "And you called yourself her mother."  
\----------  
California is ten, she tells him. Alfred, at first had thought she was eight. She's an odd little thing- she hoards seashells and collects sand in jars. "They're pretty." The child informs him.

He comes up with her name one day while she is chasing lizards. Calypso, after the lonely nymph. Electra, after the daughter of the sun.

 ** _1848: Charlotte Ophelia_**  
The states hadn't had much luck finding Oregon in the months he had spent in California, so eventually he decides to go looking for her.

"Hey, Cal, want to go on an adventure?"

Her eyes brighten. "An adventure?"  
\----------  
Oregon is a bright child. It takes Callie bribing her with blueberries to get her out of the tree.

Her eyes are different colors- one is emerald, the other sapphire.  _Did the emerald come from England or Spain?_  Alfred wonders.

"Charlotte Ophelia," Alfred tells the girls.

Callie snorts. "Charlie." She corrects. Her tone leaves no room for argument.

 ** _1849: Mindy Genevieve_**    
"You are  _not_  naming that child Minerva," Sam announces the second her comes home with Minnesota. "It's bad enough my middle name is  _Temperance_ , and Monty is stuck with  _Montgomery_  for the rest of his immortal life, and I will not let you stick this child with  _Minerva_."

Sam groans when he comes up with  _Mindy_ , instead.  
\----------   
"I like Genevieve," Sera whispers as she stands on her tiptoes to look into the crib. "For her middle name."

 ** _1850: Emily Valerie_**  
He takes Austin and Callie to find the new Utah territory.

He's expecting to be searching towns.

Instead, he gets a letter from Lora.   
\----------   
"Where did you find her."

"The Mormons had her. A few guessed at what she was and were calling her 'Deseret'." Lora looks at him. "I've been calling her Emilia."

Alfred swallows. He'd already decided on Valerie for a girl, Ethan for a boy.

He's never had it in him to be cruel, though. "I'll call her Emily, then. Emily Valerie Jones."

 ** _1850: Elijah Gavin_**  
Again, Lora finds the territory before him.

Alfred lets her name him. Lora holds the child close, brushing through dark curls so much like her own. "Elías, what is that in English?"

"Elijah."

"Elijah, then." She hands the now-asleep child over.

Alfred smiles. "Elijah Gavin."

 ** _1853: Aidan Robert_**  
_Aidan_ , Alfred decides while rocking the child.  _Aidan Robert._

 ** _1854: Addison Ruby + Caitlin_** ** _Margaret_**  
Not twins, but most certainly sisters. Nebraska's hair leaned more towards red than Kansas's, and Kansas has brown eyes, where Nebraska has blue-green.

He's always liked the name Kate, but it doesn't seem right for Nebraska.

Scarlett rolls her eyes and erases  _Kate_ ,  _Adaline_ , and  _Helen_  from the blackboard. Writes  _CAITLIN_.

"Same sound, different spelling." Scarlett brushes the chalk dust off her hands. "And Margaret. Like Tudor, or Anjou." She glances back to the board. "Addison is nice, too. Name her Ruby, get another kid with a color name around here."

 ** _1861: Julian Jonathan_**    
Davy, Drew, Flora, Josh, Scarlett, and Evangeline are gone. It feels like he's lost an arm or a leg. So he isn't very interested in naming children.

"Julian. After the Hospitaller." Lora finally decides. "And you?"

America shrugs. "Jonathan."

 ** _1861: Annalise Serenity + Christopher Liam; Nathaniel Evan_**  
Three new children on one day- now it feels like Congress is trying to replace his southern children. He passes Nevada off to Callie.

 _Annalise Serenity_  and  _Christopher Liam_ , he decides quickly. And  _Nathaniel Evan_.

"Dad, are you sure you're okay?" Connie asks.

 _Of course_ , Alfred tries to say, but he sways, then falls.

 ** _1861: Marisol Felicity_**  
Lora finds Arizona and even makes the trip up to Philadelphia to deliver her once she finds out about Alfred's recent fainting spells.

Alfred sighs. He doesn't want new states- he wants the south back. "Just name her something, Lora."  
\----------   
Lora lies the sleeping child down beside Alfred. "Her name is Marisol Felicity."

Only a fifteen days later, the Civil War breaks out.


End file.
